Nancy Pelosi Says Keystone Oil ‘Was Always Destined’ for Overseas Markets; Not So, Says Oil Industry

(CNSNews.com) – At a news conference on Wednesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was asked about President Obama's decision to reject the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline – a move that may prompt Canada to ship its oil to Chinese refineries instead of to those on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Pelosi said the oil to be carried by the Keystone pipeline “was always destined for overseas. It’s just a question of whether it leaves Canada by way of Canada or it leaves Canada by way of the United States. So, without taking a position on the pipeline, I don’t agree to the stipulation that this is oil that’s going to China now instead of the U.S. It was always going overseas,” she said.

“It wasn’t for domestic consumption,” she repeated. “And that’s really an important point because the advertising is quite to the contrary.” Pelosi said the pipeline shouldn’t be built based on the assumption that the oil is staying in the U.S. – “because it isn’t.”

But the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group, told CNSNews.com that 90 percent of fuel refined in the United States is used in this country.